All local authority areas ranked, with two Devon districts in top five and Barking and Dagenham named least friendly

The Isles of Scilly have been named as the friendliest place in England as part of a major study into social division across Britain.

All 296 local authority areas have been ranked in a new index using government data from the community life survey, measuring how often people chat to neighbours, feelings of loneliness and belonging, local pride, and levels of participation in civic life.

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Forget the vampire tales – the Eastern Carpathians deliver dramatic peaks, roaming bears and deep solitude

As the sun disappears behind the high tree line, our campfire spits and crackles. Four plump trout are sizzling on a flame-heated slab of rock, a cooking technique used by people in the Gurghiu mountains, part of Transylvania’s Eastern Carpathians, for centuries. Apart from gentle birdsong, it’s the only sound up here, 1,550 metres above sea level and far from any town or village.

“This area is very wild,” says Samir Teslovan, who drove us up through the densely forested peaks from his guesthouse in Toplița. “When I come here to the mountains, I charge my battery, charge my soul. I feel free, like the wind.”

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A vivid and hopeful study of how culture endures in the midst of extreme violence

Towards the end of her subtly piercing book about art in wartime, Charlotte Higgins recounts an autumn visit to Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city, in the north-east of the country, a short drive from the Russian border. In a tranquil park, she sees a man standing in a stream, making stones balance on top of each other in a teetering tower – “a metaphor of life in that city,” she writes, “that would have seemed too obvious for a novel”.

Still, as a good novelist would, Higgins doesn’t seem to beg telling details from a place so much as have them leap to her open eye and ear. The cartoons a boy is watching that fall silent in a power cut, allowing the distant boom of explosions on the frontline to be heard. A cityscape tattooed on a young poet’s arm that cuts off suddenly where skin from his leg was grafted after he was torn up by shrapnel. Cataracts of larkspur, as Higgins describes them, in a field in the frontline Donbas region, “pouring down the hill, pooling at the bottom into a great lake of blooms … Larkspur thrives on ground where there has been recent disturbance.”

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Lee Jae Myung reiterates desire for full command back in Seoul’s hands after Donald Trump cuts joint exercises, citing warm ties with Kim Jong-un

• ‘Inane, haphazard decision’ by Trump to gut South Korea alliance

South Korea’s president ⁠has renewed his push to regain independent control of the military from the US in the event of war and urged faster progress in acquiring nuclear-powered submarines after Donald Trump’s order to cut joint drills.

On Sunday night, Trump instructed the Pentagon to “substantially reduce” this week’s joint military exercises with South Korea, saying the nuclear-armed North “has been unthreatening and respectful” and that the US president had a “very good relationship with Kim Jong-un”.

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The diplomatic spat continues to simmer as Moscow summons Tokyo’s ambassador after the Russian president’s trip to the disputed islands last week

The diplomatic spat between Japan and Russia following Vladimir Putin’s visit to an archipelago of disputed islands north of Hokkaido continues to escalate, after Moscow summoned the Japanese ambassador on Tuesday.

On Thursday Sanae Takaichi, Japan’s prime minister, called Putin’s actions “absolutely unacceptable” and Russia’s ambassador in Tokyo was immediately called in for a dressing down. Russia countered that it was Japan making unfounded claims on its territory.

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Country’s second fatal school shooting in two months took place in city of ⁠Zamboanga and video appeared to be live-streamed on social media

A student was shot dead at a high school in the southern Philippines before the alleged killer took his own life, the local mayor said, in the second school shooting in the South-east Asian nation in two months.

The shooting took ⁠place at a school attached to Ateneo de Zamboanga University in the southern city of ⁠Zamboanga, a Catholic private institution in western Mindanao.

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The PM’s net zero pragmatism may please some voters, but as parts of the country go up in flames, it’s an increasingly hard sell

When the siren sounded on Friday night, my first thought was fire.

Weeks of unrelenting sun in the normally soggy Peak District, where I was visiting my mum, have bleached green valleys a dangerously dry, crispy blond. One of her neighbours had earlier pointed out an ominous cloud of smoke on the horizon, coming from one of the wildfires raging all summer on the moor. When that harsh, discordant shriek blared from every mobile phone in the house, I was half-braced for an evacuation order, not what turned out to be a faintly melodramatic warning to the nation to lay off the barbecues. A false alarm, of sorts, but one that felt uneasily like a wake-up call.

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Two Café Cecilia stalwarts that are just the thing for the summer heat

Five years after Café Cecilia opened, a handful of dishes have become permanent fixtures, returning to the menu time and again – and this confit trout salad is definitely one of them. During the recent heatwaves, we’ve naturally shifted towards dishes that are best served at room temperature or slightly warm, and both of these recipes reflect that approach. They’re designed to serve two, but can just as easily be scaled up for a larger group. And almost everything can be prepared in advance, making them ideal for entertaining at home.

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Rick Baker helped define Hollywood’s creature features with his wild makeup effects skills. From Locarno, he talks Gremlins, his love of simians– and why AI will never replace expert design

When Rick Baker was 22 years old and laying the first bricks of what would become one of the great Hollywood careers, he travelled to Hatra in Iraq with director William Friedkin to assist with Max von Sydow’s makeup on The Exorcist. “Oh, he was definitely a lunatic,” Baker recalls of Friedkin, his signature goatee and ponytail still intact, if a little more salt than pepper these days. “But he made a great movie.” Friedkin had been travelling with a fake passport, and the production was plagued by extreme heat and dust storms – but the show went on. “I did von Sydow’s hands,” Baker says. “I pretty much just held a glue bottle.”

We are speaking in Locarno, Switzerland, during the film festival, where Baker has accepted a lifetime achievement award and introduced screenings of An American Werewolf in London and The Nutty Professor – the first and fourth of his seven Oscar wins. When he completed his last big production, Maleficent, in 2014, it ended a more than 40-year career in which he made some huge contributions to popular culture. The monsters in Michael Jackson’s Thriller video? They were Baker’s handiwork. The Mos Eisley cantina band in Star Wars? That was him, too. In 1999, he leaked a story to the press to stop the studio from simply painting Jim Carrey green instead of using his designs for How the Grinch Stole Christmas; he won the argument and a sixth Oscar followed.

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Twee vrachtwagens zijn maandagavond met elkaar in botsing gekomen op de A15 bij Alblasserdam. Een chauffeur is lichtgewond geraakt, één van de wagens raakte zwaar beschadigd.

Buurtbewoners van de Kooilaan in Bleiswijk zijn de geluidsoverlast van brullende motoren en hardrijdende auto's meer dan zat. Met name op zonnige dagen racen de voertuigen volgens bewoners op hoge snelheid langs. Gevaarlijke situaties en overlast bij buurtbewoners zijn het gevolg. Daarom zijn ze een petitie gestart voor maatregelen.

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

handwritten on negative sleeve, "2019"

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Andy Atzert has added a photo to the pool:

If you’re struggling to stay up to date with Redmond’s regular product re-branding exercises, here’s the site for you: The Microsoft Rebrand Registry. Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Loryan Strant created the site because he thinks it’s a valuable resource, and also in the hope it makes visitors “chuckle.” Readers may remember that Strant has also created the site Let Me Correct That For You, which lists the exact names of Microsoft products – an effort he told The Register he thinks is useful because Microsoft in its wisdom uses Camel Case for names like PowerPoint but went with conventional capitalization for Copilot. Another of his sites immortalizes Microsoft cloud product logos. He’s also created HumbledandHonored.com, a site that generates social media posts MVPs can use to announce they have earned or retained Microsoft’s awards. Strant told The Register that the Rebrand Registry came about after some banter between himself and other MVPs, during which the topic of Microsoft’s many product name changes came up. He decided to do something about it. The site lists 72 Microsoft products and 158 names they’ve had over the years. It also includes some analysis of Microsoft’s branding, which sees a product’s name survive for an average of two years and eleven months. The site lists eight products that have gone through three name changes: · Azure AI Search · Azure App Service · Azure DevOps · Azure SQL Database · Foundry Tools · Microsoft 365 Copilot app · Microsoft Configuration Manager · Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Strant has even had a go at predicting which Microsoft products are likely to get a new name soon, by considering the amount of time the current name has applied, prior names, and the frequency with which Microsoft changes names of products in the same family. That methodology led him to suggest an “elevated” likelihood of name changes for the Azure App Service, Azure SQL Database, Azure DevOps, and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Field Service. The site considers surviving products only, and Strant admits his analysis is therefore biased towards product Microsoft still publishes. He also pointed out that he’s not decided how to handle successor products, for example when Microsoft discontinued Skype for Business and put similar functions into Teams. Strant said he created Let Me Correct That For You using WordPress, while his Microsoft logo library grew out of a OneDrive folder and relies on a GitHub repo. For the Rebrand Registry, he used vibe coding tools. “I have my own harness that lets me custom-build things,” he explained, adding that he rigorously validates data rather than relying on AI tools to get facts right. Strant said most of the feedback he gets about his sites is positive, either on LinkedIn or during face-to-face meetings at events. He’s heard that Microsoft people appreciate his efforts because Redmond hasn’t preserved the same data his sites record. “I hope that people find them useful, and get a chuckle,” he said. ®

Weer voor Rotterdam 🌦️ - 18-08-2026 07:15 CEST

In één oogopslag:
• 17.4°C · Matige motregen 🌦️ | Min 17.4°C / Max 20.4°C | Kans op neerslag 65%

Verwachting voor vandaag:
• Min 17.4°C, Max 20.4°C (Lichte regen) 🌧️, Neerslag 6.0 mm, Kans op neerslag 65%, 🧭 1009.5 hPa ↘️ -1.1 hPa/24h, Windsnelheid: 22.7 km/u (6.3 m/s), richting: → 249°

Uurlijkse voorspelling voor de komende 12 uur:

• 08:00: 17.4°C (Matige motregen) 🌦️, Neerslag 0.6 mm, Kans op neerslag 100%, 🧭 1010.6 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 18.0 km/u (5.0 m/s), richting: ↑ 170°
• 09:00: 18.3°C (Lichte motregen) 🌦️, Neerslag 0.1 mm, Kans op neerslag 100%, 🧭 1009.7 hPa ↘️ -0.9 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 22.7 km/u (6.3 m/s), richting: ↑ 198°
• 10:00: 19.7°C (Bewolkt) ☁️, Kans op neerslag 97%, 🧭 1009.5 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 20.5 km/u (5.7 m/s), richting: → 269°
• 11:00: 20.1°C (Bewolkt) ☁️, Kans op neerslag 90%, 🧭 1009.7 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 20.5 km/u (5.7 m/s), richting: → 281°
• 12:00: 20.1°C (Bewolkt) ☁️, Kans op neerslag 82%, 🧭 1010.0 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 19.4 km/u (5.4 m/s), richting: → 282°
• 13:00: 19.9°C (Bewolkt) ☁️, Kans op neerslag 74%, 🧭 1010.3 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 16.6 km/u (4.6 m/s), richting: → 277°
• 14:00: 19.5°C (Bewolkt) ☁️, Kans op neerslag 69%, 🧭 1010.3 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 17.6 km/u (4.9 m/s), richting: → 271°
• 15:00: 19.8°C (Bewolkt) ☁️, Kans op neerslag 73%, 🧭 1010.2 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 17.6 km/u (4.9 m/s), richting: → 272°
• 16:00: 20.0°C (Lichte motregen) 🌦️, Neerslag 0.1 mm, Kans op neerslag 80%, 🧭 1009.8 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 18.0 km/u (5.0 m/s), richting: → 273°
• 17:00: 20.1°C (Lichte motregen) 🌦️, Neerslag 0.1 mm, Kans op neerslag 84%, 🧭 1009.3 hPa ↘️ -0.5 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 18.7 km/u (5.2 m/s), richting: → 276°
• 18:00: 20.3°C (Bewolkt) ☁️, Kans op neerslag 79%, 🧭 1009.1 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 16.6 km/u (4.6 m/s), richting: → 278°
• 19:00: 20.4°C (Bewolkt) ☁️, Kans op neerslag 70%, 🧭 1008.6 hPa ↘️ -0.5 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 14.8 km/u (4.1 m/s), richting: → 274°

Voorspelling voor de komende dagen:

• woensdag 19 augustus: Min 15.7°C, Max 22.3°C (Lichte regen) 🌧️, Neerslag 4.9 mm, Kans op neerslag 48%, 🧭 1006.1 hPa ↘️ -3.4 hPa/24h, Windsnelheid: 17.3 km/u (4.8 m/s), richting: → 259°
• donderdag 20 augustus: Min 15.7°C, Max 21.1°C (Matige motregen) 🌦️, Neerslag 4.4 mm, Kans op neerslag 61%, 🧭 1005.7 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/24h, Windsnelheid: 17.4 km/u (4.8 m/s), richting: ↗ 223°
• vrijdag 21 augustus: Min 15.1°C, Max 20.3°C (Zware motregen) 🌦️, Neerslag 5.5 mm, Kans op neerslag 38%, 🧭 1008.6 hPa ↗️ +2.9 hPa/24h, Windsnelheid: 12.6 km/u (3.5 m/s), richting: ↗ 227°
• zaterdag 22 augustus: Min 13.7°C, Max 18.5°C (Zware motregen) 🌦️, Neerslag 7.7 mm, Kans op neerslag 38%, 🧭 1015.0 hPa ↗️ +6.4 hPa/24h, Windsnelheid: 13.4 km/u (3.7 m/s), richting: ↓ 7°
• zondag 23 augustus: Min 13.1°C, Max 18.6°C (Bewolkt) ☁️, Kans op neerslag 26%, 🧭 1022.2 hPa ↗️ +7.2 hPa/24h, Windsnelheid: 7.8 km/u (2.2 m/s), richting: ↙ 29°
• maandag 24 augustus: Min 12.4°C, Max 19.9°C (Bewolkt) ☁️, Kans op neerslag 18%, 🧭 1021.0 hPa ↘️ -1.2 hPa/24h, Windsnelheid: 16.2 km/u (4.5 m/s), richting: ↙ 53°

Details:
• 🌡️ Huidige temperatuur (om 07:15): 17.4°C (Matige motregen)
• 🤚 Gevoelstemperatuur: 16.8°C (-0.6°C)
• 💨 Windsnelheid: 17.3 km/u (4.8 m/s), richting: ↑ 159°
• 🌬️ Windstoten: 30.6 km/h (8.5 m/s)
• 💧 Luchtvochtigheid: 92%
• 🧭 Luchtdruk: 1010.6 hPa ↘️ -1.1 hPa/3h
• 👁️ Zichtbaarheid: 4.4 km
• ☀️ UV-index: 0.1
• 🌅 Zonsopgang: 06:31 · 🌇 Zonsondergang: 21:00

Luchtkwaliteit:
• AQI: 32 🟢 (Goed)
• PM2.5: 8.9 μg/m³
• PM10: 10.0 μg/m³

Gegevens geleverd door Open-Meteo

#Rotterdam #Meteo #MeteoBot #MeteoNetherlands #OpenMeteo #FediMeteo

De nieuwe Renaissanceschool in Almere, die is ontstaan vanuit de kring rond Forum voor Democratie, is maandag van start gegaan met slechts vier leerlingen. Op het schoolplein was het bij de opening opvallend rustig.

De basisschool wil kinderen onderwijzen vanuit de waarden van het „oude Europa”. Daarbij kiest de school onder meer voor kleine klassen, klassieke kunst in het gebouw en een eigen benadering van onderwijs voor jongens en meisjes. Volgens berichtgeving over de eerste schooldag arriveerde de laatste leerling pas na negen uur: een vierjarig meisje uit Oekraïne, dat werd begeleid door haar ouders en oom.

De Renaissanceschool trekt al langere tijd politieke aandacht. Critici vrezen dat een school die nauw verbonden is met een politieke partij kan leiden tot ideologische beïnvloeding van leerlingen. Staatssecretaris Judith Tielen (Onderwijs) heeft laten weten dat de Onderwijsinspectie de school nauwlettend volgt. In het eerste jaar staat al een volledig kwaliteitsonderzoek gepland.

De geringe opkomst op de eerste dag betekent niet automatisch dat de school geen toekomst heeft: basisscholen kunnen gedurende het schooljaar nog nieuwe leerlingen verwelkomen. Maar de start met vier kinderen onderstreept wel hoe klein de school voorlopig is.